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Third Amendment

“No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.”

This amendment while outdated is important to consider on the chance that our nation ends up in a civil war.

This amendment has two parts:

“No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house” – During peacetime, Congress cannot mandate that any citizen or property owner take in a soldier without their consent.

“Nor in time for war, but in a manner prescribed by law” – During times of war, Congress can only house troops in housing as prescribed by laws and regulation.

The phrase “Without consent of the owner” was intentionally left out since the phrase applies in both times of war and peace.

Other notes:

The Third Amendment is one of the least cited parts of the Constitution in legal cases. It has never been addressed by the Supreme Court in over 200 years, but it has been referred to by the Court a few times. The reason it has been cited so few times is that there have been so few wars fought on American territory, especially since the Civil War. Another reason is that the American army now has substantial military bases tohouseits soldiers. (Read more)

There stands a good chance that if our military or government ever ran out of housing, that there are private citizens that would be happy to house our troops.

While the amendment is hardly utilized due to the amount of military housing AND the few wars that have been fought on American soil, it is still important to recognize property rights of private citizens; if the federal government attempts to use your home in a manner that you don’t approve of and there’s a suspicion that you will not be fairly compensated, you have every right to decline and turn them away.